Peregrine falcon

Review bycanaryswear· 2026-11-05

Likewise [it is called] tloquauhtli. The hen is somewhat large, and the cock somewhat small. The hen is a great hunter. It is called a falcon. It has a yellow bill; its feathers are all dark grey; there are twelve [feathers] on its tail. Its legs are yellow. When it hunts, [it does so] only with its talons. When it goes flying over birds, even when it flies above them, it does not strike them with its wings; it only tries to seize them with its talons. And these birds can no longer fly; if they try to fly, they can no longer go, [but] only suddenly fall. And if [the quauhtlotli] succeeds in catching one, it at once clutches [the victim] by the breast; then it pierces its throat. It drinks its blood, consumes it all. It does not spill a drop of the blood. And when it can eat it, first it plucks out the bird’s feathers. It eats three times a day: first, before the sun has risen; second, at midday; third, when the sun has set. It brings forth its young in inaccessible places; it nests in the openings of the crags. It has only two young. And this falcon gives life to Uitzilopochtli because, they said, these falcons, when they eat three times a day, as it were give drink to the sun; because when they drink blood, they consume it all. Its flesh is not edible. But thus are the falcons hunted: before one of them they place a duck, and in its breast, in its breast cage, they conceal a snare, though some only wrap the snare around it.